“This is in the UK?” asked Tristan.
“I know, it looks like somewhere abroad. Max and Nick live right on the end of a long patch of beach, goes on for miles, really desolate. There aren’t many other houses around . . . ,” he said, scrolling through more photos.
“Is that Max?” asked Tristan when he got to a photo of a stocky man from behind, wearing a baseball cap. He was directing a couple of deliverymen with a trolley filled with drinks.
“Yeah. That’s when we were setting up. That’s Nick, there,” he said, indicating another tall man with his back toward the camera next to a large white canopy set up on the lawn in front of the swimming pool. He was lifting the boxes off the trolley. He had short light-brown hair, and he was well built.
“You got any other photos of them?” asked Tristan.
“Let me see,” Bishop said, scrolling through the photos from the inside of the marquee, where a bar was being set up and a huge ice sculpture was being lifted into place.
“I’ve got photos of the beach. There’s a thick patch of dunes in front of the house. That’s where Noah wanted to go with me and Sam. He gave us the impression he’s been there before, in the dunes.”
“How did he react when you said no?”
“I was called away, but Sam told me afterward he wouldn’t leave him alone. In the end, he told Noah to f off. Noah flipped up the tray of drinks Sam was carrying and called him all kinds of things.”
“What did Max do?”
“I don’t know if he was there. By this time, the party was rowdy and loud, so no one really noticed. Max was more worried about people going too far down on the beach.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got a picture I took when we went down to the beach before the party,” he said. “Here.”
It was a photo of the sun setting over a vast expanse of sandy beach; the tide was far out. To the left was a huge sign planted in the sand dunes that read: NO CARS, BIKES, MOTORBIKES, OR QUADS
ALLOWED PAST THIS POINT
MAX PENALTY ￡400 WARNING
WARNING! DO NOT WALK OR DRIVE
ANY KIND OF VEHICLE OUT TO
THE SOFT SAND AND MUD AT LOW TIDE
“Max said that Nick is obsessed about the tide on the beach in front of their house—when it’s going out, how far it’s going out. And when it’s going out if there are people still on the beach. There’s been so many people who’ve got stranded out in the mud, and a couple of times their party guests have gotten drunk and wandered out when the tide’s low, and they almost got stranded when it came back in,” said Bishop.
Tristan peered at the photo. “You can’t even see the water’s edge.”
“Yeah. The tide goes out really far and comes back in fast too. Whenever Nick goes away on business, Max told me that he’s always asking him to check the weather to check if there’s going to be a storm.”
“Is their house at risk of flooding?” asked Tristan.
“I don’t think so. Nick just has this weird PTSD about it.”
“PTSD? Did he get stuck out on the sand when the tide was coming in?”
“I dunno. But there are always things in the news about people and cars getting stranded out at high tide along that stretch of beach. Max doesn’t like to leave him alone there much, cos he can get really worked up about it.”
“Has he been officially diagnosed with PTSD?” asked Tristan.
“I don’t know. I get the impression they’re very reclusive. The only time I’ve ever heard Max tell me about them going anywhere is when they were in London and went to the cinema and Nick had a full-on panic attack.”
“Why?”
“He said they never, ever go out. Nick hates being in crowds, but Max really wanted to see The Woman in Black and persuaded him to go out. They only got halfway through the film when Nick started panicking. They had to leave.”
“Are Max and Nick married?” asked Tristan.
“I don’t think so. They’ve been together for years.”
“Do you know what kind of property development Nick does?”
“Max said something vague about private-equity, high-profile stuff. He’s quite a dish. He’s tall, like Max, but quite butch, unlike Max.”
“How old is he?”
“Fiftyish.”
Tristan made some notes and checked back over what he’d written.
“Have you heard any stories about the hotel when it was a commune? Has anyone ever come to the hotel who used to live there when it was a commune?”
Bishop shook his head, and then he frowned.
“You say that this guy, David, lived there and then went missing. How?” he asked.
“He didn’t show up to his friend’s birthday party. This was back in June 1999. He’d been a runaway from home. His friend, Shelley, was concerned and reported him missing to the police,” said Tristan. “We were talking about this guy, Noah. Have you ever seen him at Jesper’s?”
“No. I’ve never seen him there. Luckily, he was just some drunken twat at a party. A mean drunk at that,” said Bishop. “After he flipped up Sam’s tray, he left, and on the way out, he called me a dirty little prick tease.”
“Did you tell Max?”
“No. It’s part of the job when you work in a bar, dealing with drunken idiots.”
24
Kate walked back to her car and was troubled by her meeting with Marnie; her personal interest in Kate made her feel grubby, and her theory that Joanna was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and the victim of a serial killer made her uneasy. So did Bill’s link to the asbestos story. She was annoyed they hadn’t checked out Bill and his business interests more closely.
Kate sat in the car tapping her foot, unsure what to do. She found Bill’s mobile phone number and called him, but it twice went to voice mail. She left a short message asking him to return her call, saying she had an update about the case she wanted to discuss.
She then tried to call Bev, who answered.
“Is Bill there?” asked Kate.
“No. He’s away on business,” said Bev.
“Do you know when he’s back?”
“Friday.”
Bev’s voice sounded thick, and she was slurring a little. It was only three p.m.
“Are you okay to talk?” asked Kate.
“Course I am. What is it?”
“I really wanted to ask Bill this, but maybe you could help . . .”
“Go on.”
“I’ve been talking to Marnie, Joanna’s—”
“I know who Marnie is.”
“Yes, of course. She just told me that in the weeks before she went missing, Joanna had been investigating the purchase of an office block, Marco Polo House in Exeter.”
“Yes. Jo found out that they were trying to cover up the asbestos problem. That was very awkward. Jo was very good to Bill. She went to him the second she knew about it. I wasn’t happy about it when I found out, but Bill had a lot of money tied up in the building, and he swears to me that they were acting on the advice of an expert, who told them that the asbestos didn’t need removing as long as they plastered up the walls and sealed it all in tight,” said Bev. “You see?”
Kate rolled her eyes. This was nonsense. Everyone knew that asbestos was a huge problem, and environmental agencies took it seriously.